Flutterwave has announced the enlistment of 200 more employees into its team to sustain its growth and expansion objectives. The Graduate Trainee Program saw the fintech drill university graduates with soft skills that would launch them into their careers. This inaugural project is the first to be managed by its new Chief of People and Culture Officer Mansi Babyloni, upon her return to Flutterwave.
Why it matters:
Interestingly, Flutterwave is hiring new staff even as the world may soon be teetering on the edge of a global recession.
•Consequently, several companies have let go several staff. For instance, Tesla, a leading automotive company, cut down the size of its data annotation team by nearly 200.
• Netflix trimmed its employee size by 300.
• Microsoft joined the train when it let off 200 members of its workforce.
• Meta is not left behind even as 10% of its employees brace for a job cuts.
This spate of job cuts has also affected Africa.
• MarketForce on its side laid 9% of its employees after a Series A funding round. About 54 persons were affected in the cutdown.
• Sendy, a Kenyan logistics startup also downsized its workforce by 10%, reducing its headcount by 30.
As funding slowed dramatically across the continent, more job slashes and salary cuts have become a norm rather than an exception. The statistics are simply abysmal. Per Layoffs.fyi report, 517 startups have laid off 69857 employees in 2022.
Riding against the tide:
The current employment comes after waves of reputational damage hit the fintech. In April, a slew of accusations were levelled against fintech including charges of bullying against its CEO by Clara Wanjiku. A few weeks later, reports sprung up about Flutterwave allegedly freezing the account of 86fb Football, a football investment platform. Inclusive in the April saga were allegations of fraud and insider trading as detailed by David Hundeyin, an independent journalist. The reports don’t end there; July saw Kenya freeze more than $40 million in 52 bank accounts owned by Flutterwave over money laundering charges leveled up against it by the Kenyan Assets Recovery Agency (ARA).
A common trend in these allegations is Flutterwave’s persistent denial of all accusations. More recently was a blow from Kenya after Flutterwave was said to be operating without a licence.
Flutterwave is however still on expansion given the current employment. The returning Flutterwave executive, Mansi Babyloni said, “this program is critically important to supporting our strategic growth needs, as we continue to expand across markets and geographies. As a global company, we’re looking forward to how this program can grow across other countries.”
What they are saying:
Olugbenga Agboola, CEO of Flutterwave stated that the graduate trainee program is a key part of the payments processor’s continued efforts to support young talent and help them kick start their career.
“Over the years, we’ve been thinking about developing a program that serves as a pipeline for talent from the University to the workforce,” he said.
“We’re happy that Mansi and the entire People and Culture team at Flutterwave have made this a reality. Because of this project, 200 people will have an opportunity to break into their careers and get started on the path towards achieving their dreams,” he added.
